Recommendations for Software for Laying-out Industrial Control Panels

[calzap]

I've look a bit online for such software.  Any not found any relatively inexpensive software designed specifically for control panel layout.  I've been using Visio, which works pretty well, but perhaps there is something better.  I'm open to suggestions.

One problem that consumes some time when using Visio is usable shapes of various components.  I don't mean schematic symbols, but reasonably realistic, labeled shapes of relays, PLCs, transformers, etc.   The shapes need to be realistic in order to show what they are and how they fit.  However, some minor alterations, mostly of terminal locations, are useful in order to show clearly the connections.

Few component manufacturers have Visio stencils for their products available.  Nearly all have technical drawings, like as pdf or jpg files, that can be downloaded.  Many, but not all, have dwg or dwt files, which Vizio can open.  Usually, I've found the dwg and dwt files not to be that useful.  They are either overly detailed or omit crucial details.

I insert a bitmap (usually a jpg) of a component that is not in my library into a blank Visio drawing.  Then beside it, I paste the nearest likeness of a device that is already in my Visio library.  Then I alter the Visio shape to be like the bitmap, with some variations that make it more useable in Visio, and copy the new shape to the library.

As an example, see the two figures below of a Macromatic timing relay.  The first is an image taken from Macromatic's datasheet with brand and M/N added by me.  The second is a screen shot of a useable Visio shape.  Notice the terminals in the bottom two rows of the Visio shape are offset laterally, which allows straight-in connections.

There are a few tricks to using Visio for panel layout.  One is to keep wiring runs square, avoiding diagonal lines.  This becomes obvious the first time you move a block of components.  Another is to convert arcs from 1-dimension to 2-dimension shapes (click on Behavior under the Developer tab).  That way they won't distort if they are in a group and the group is resized.  Yet another is using the F2 key to enter text editing.  If text is embedded in a group, clicking on the text can bring up the dashed outline of the text-box.  But clicking again or double-clicking usually makes the dashed-outline go away with no chance to edit the text.  Once the dashed-outline is present, press F2; then you can edit the text.

Assuming the components are in horizontal rows (the usual case), leave plenty of vertical space between rows for wiring runs.  And allow lots of space to the side for vertical wiring runs.  Third figure is a screen shot of two rows of a panel I'm designing.

Mike in California

[senso]

Best in town is Eplan, a floating license(with a page limit of 50 user pages, reports not included, but you can make it a multi-part schematic and work around the limitations without making an awful schematic full of dead connections) with access to their online parts repository will cost you around 6000€, give or take.
There are other ways to have it, and most manufacturers have edz files(or xml files) so you dont need to design everything, but after making a couple parts its quick do make them from scratch as well, nothing comes close to the capabilities of Eplan, there is a steep-ish learning curve, and not much info on the internets to guide you, and for some reason, its mostly EU centric, US seems to prefer the old fashioned hodge podge of internal guidelines and making it on autocad 2D.

There is an open source alternative, doesn't look too bad to be honest judging by the screenshots:
https://qelectrotech.org/index.html

[calzap]

Senso,

Thanks for the info.  EPlan is a bit too much in several ways for me.  I'll give QElectroTech a try though.

[excitedbox]

Check on github I know I saw one that I think would fit your needs. I saw something in the VS code extension marketplace the other day while looking for a DB relationship modeling extension that also allowed making flow graphs and offered a lot of models that might fit your needs.

Search both those places for data flow or flow graph and I think you will find something that fits. Libre Draw also has some gallary add ons for electronics and chemistry and networking there are probably more for other things too.

Calligraphy Karbon is an option that looks promising and is open source.
This is a browser based one I ran into today. You can import your own sets and they have tons of sets already.
https://www.yworks.com/yed-live/